Harmony 880 . . . JUNK! - Page 4  

Thx czzer,
I was adding it to my watch TV activity! It was the uploading of the finished changes that hung up on sending it to the 880 thru the USB cable.

Thanks for your input . . . I know that took courage to come up with that interesting comment and on your 4th post.

By the way, forum threads are just like watching the tv, you can always "change" the channel.

Were your other 3 posts this informative???

Call tech support, I'm sure they will replace the battery or the unit if within warranty!

This time around, since I knew what to expect to get the end result it was not as frustrating as the first time.

This was my living room setup with the uploading of 4 components plus the TV to the 880. This was also with a different tv and components than my bedroom setup.

20 minute setup . . . . ha ha ha ha :D (I also have this bridge in Brooklyn, I'd like to sell ya)
For those of you that had the 20 minute 880 setup time it must be due to you're buying all those Wamart brand components for your HT setup :p ha ha only kidding, I'm such a kidder.

First mistake: don't figure on starting the setup process to late at night (like I just did) because tech support closes at 10 pm. This 10pm closing time is yet another indication of how Logitech won't spend the money needed to correct our issues.

Maybe it was better when Harmony owned the company for many of the users of the older Harmony models. Maybe that's why so many other users say they had great tech support. Clearly this is not the case with the 880 model in my experience, now that Logitech owns Harmony.

So I had to put off getting the 880 working until I came home early the next day. They answered the phone in 30 seconds at 4pm! At night it takes 20-30 minutes for them to answer.

So after uploading the components it still took me about an hour to jimmy the stuff around and end result still gave me an input error where the TV would scroll right past the proper input and land on the wrong one each time. Moving around delays didn't help either. The help key does not correct these problems permanently, they have to be corrected by a software adjustment and a re-upload.

So a call to tech support the next day gave me another 30 minutes of time wasted with another inexperienced tech support person. She finally moved me up to the second level tech. who solved my input issue within a few minutes by mapping out discreet input commands from their end and then I uploaded the changes and after another few changes and uploads he finally got it working correctly.

The 880, in my opinion and as other posters have said, the end result is definitely worth it. This is why I bought the second 880.

But the setup and poor "first level" tech support is definitely a pain in the A*S to deal with.

But I am happy with both 880's now :) as they do exactly what I bought them to do.

Still the 20 minute setup time that Logitech advertises is bogus in my opinion, now after two 880 setups and I'm even experienced with the 2nd installation so it should have went smoother.

The issue I had with both setups is directly related to how the software handles the inputs which is the most important part of the 1 button macro process.

For some users TV's you may get lucky and the software is able to handle your tv's inputs correctly. But my experience with a brand new 50 inch Panasonic plasma and my other tv which is a 61 inch Sony rear projector both gave me the same input problems which forced me to call Logitech tech support.

This is where the problem is. I don't mind the calling of tech support, it's free and I appreciate that (but for how long, who knows). What I do mind is all issues could be solved very quickly if their tech support people were trained to the second level status. What Logitech is doing is using us to TRAIN their first level support people.

This is what I find most annouying with the whole process. Clearly, their support people are very inexperienced and expect to waste much of your time on your first call to them until you get passed up to the next level. And if you're calling at night, expect to be on hold another 30 minutes to get to the next level.

Conclusion after TWO 880 setups: It's a great remote with a probable 3 hour expected setup time for many of us that are not lucky enough to have it work the first time around with your particular HT component brands.

Logitech is going to continue to see a lot of 880 units returned for the same frustrations I experienced. Maybe then, they will spend some money for qualified support people (and also extend their support hours).

If that happens, the 880 and similar models could sweep a big share of the universal macro remote market.

Thanks for your comments . . . I still don't get the fact that so many posters can't believe that the 880 just won't work as described for the initial setup. Eventually when Logitech gets enough complaints from users like me along with returns of the unit, maybe they will solve the software issues. These input issues should not be there IMO. If you enjoy tweaking and I'm sure you do from your sig. more power to you. I don't. And please don't tell me the remotes not for me or I don't want to learn the advanced features.

This is my second unit and I did try the advanced features and still had to call their poor first level support which was once again a waste of much of my time.

For a list price of over $200, no one should have to deal with poor customer support and a much to be desired, user unfriendly software interface.

This is my opinion and I'll stand by it. I've invested over $350 so far for the two 880's and found the same issues even with different components. For $350, I think I have a right to my opinions and experiences, don't I?

My unbiased opinions could at least let potential 880 buyers know what they may be in for in that they may not be as lucky or software knowledgeable as you.

Maybe even Logitech will take note of this thread and correct these issues.

The 880 to me in the end, still appears to be a great device for the price even with it's setup and learning curve issues.

What you say is true . . . And I'm not looking for a back and forth thread. I was commenting on that my second setup had problems just like my first.

I just think potential buyers should be aware especially after my 2nd experience that if you are going to spend $175 or even $350 as I did, when it comes to setting up a device as expensive as this one . . . we should not have to leave it up to LUCK!

I do feel bad though that my originally title of the thread which says "Harmony JUNK" (I was ticked off at the time) I tried to change it, but the system won't go back and change past thread titles. I think the unit itself is great and far surpasses my former Pronto unit for setup.

I would have liked to adjust the title of the thread to something like: "Harmony setup too time consuming for me, not as advertised".
This would be a fairer assessment of the device IMO.